BILLIONAIRE HOTELIER KNOWN FOR HIS LOYALTY, GENEROSITY

R.E. “Earl” Holding was on a family vacation in Mexico in 1971 when he learned about a hotel in San Diego that Esquire magazine rated as one of the three finest in the world. He added San Diego to his itinerary and from the moment he clapped his eye on the then-1-year-old Westgate Plaza Hotel, he was smitten with its European élan and luxurious trappings.

“He walked through the hotel and absolutely fell in love,” said Richard Cox, The Westgate’s general manager. “It was one of the most magnificent hotels he had ever seen.

“He purchased it and has maintained it in its near original state since 1974.”

Mr. Holding, a billionaire who made his first fortune operating a 24-hour service station in rural Wyoming, died at his Salt Lake City home on April 19 of complications of a stroke he suffered in 2002. He was 86.

He paid $14.7 million for the 223-room Westgate that was developed by local banker C. Arnholt Smith. At the time, room rates ranged from $26 to $40 and a fine dinner in the hotel restaurant cost about $8.

“We have bought the hotel to own it and operate it because we like it,” Mr. Holding said in a 1974 San Diego Union article.

Mr. Holding’s first experience in the hospitality industry came in 1952 when he and his wife, Carol, took over Little America, a service station with a 12-seat cafe and a 12-room motel in a desolate patch of Wyoming. He grew Little America into a chain of travel plazas that gave him the capital to buy a Mobil refinery in Casper in the 1960s, and Sinclair Oil in 1976. A year later, he purchased Sun Valley resort, and in 1984, he bought Snowbasin Resort near Salt Lake City.

Robert Earl Holding was born Nov. 29, 1926, in Salt Lake City, the youngest of three to Franklin and Reva Holding. He served in the Army Air Forces at the end of World War II and received a degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah.

Mr. Holding was known for promoting from within and many of the employees he hired spent their entire careers with him. General Manager Cox started at The Westgate as a bus boy in 1988; Mr. Holding came to town in March to see him get his 25th anniversary recognition. Westgate Engineering Director Mike Ryan first worked for Mr. Holding at Little America in Cheyenne before following him to Idaho and then San Diego.

“He never expected you to take orders, he would work right alongside you,” said Ryan. “Whenever we were really busy, he would go back into the kitchen and cook hamburgers for us.

“You wouldn’t know he was a billionaire. He didn’t have to sound off trumpets. He was very down to earth.”

Cindy Tallstrom, The Westgate’s human resource manager and a 28-year hotel employee, described Mr. Holding as a patriarch who knew every one of his 5,000 employees by name, hosted old-fashioned Christmas parties and gave gifts and bonuses.

“He had movie star good looks and charisma, but the man was powerful, not in his status, but in his presence,” Tallstrom said.

Mr. Holding is survived by Carol Orme Holding, his wife of 64 years; three children and 12 grandchildren.

Services were held in Utah. The family suggests donations in Mr. Holding’s memory to the Boy Scouts of America or to the University of Utah Stroke Center.